The present invention relates to telecommunications connectors, and more particularly to a new and improved electrical grounding and ground clip system for use in connectors and terminals designed to be mounted side-by-side by clipping onto an electrically grounded metallic support rail.
The telecommunications industry is increasingly requiring that high-density, low-cost connector arrays combine more and more performance into less and less space, and be operable with less and less manual labor. However, it is also expected that the reliability of the electrical connections will continue to be at least as dependable as before, and preferably will become more environmentally secure and reliable. Increasingly, labor-saving innovations such as insulation-displacing connectors (IDC's) are becoming standard in telecommunications terminals. These well-known terminations enable the user to connect a wire quickly to a terminal without first removing the insulation and then having to tighten a screw-driven binding post.
For connectors and terminals designed to be mounted side-by-side by clipping onto an electrically grounded metallic support rail, however, many designs still typically require tightening a screw to complete the ground connection to the rail. Designs which have eliminated this labor-intensive delay appear to be rare. One such configuration, shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,171,861, describes the use of an angled flat leaf spring in the rail-engaging groove of a ground-wire bridge to assure a resilient engagement with the grounding rail. Mention is also made that the end of the ground-wire bridge itself could be made resilient to render the spring superfluous, although no teaching is given of how this is to be accomplished. Thus, while a connection device is disclosed which can be hooked to one side of the grounding rail and then rotated and snapped into position on the other side of the rail, the ground-wire bridge itself appears to require assistance (the angled leaf spring) to achieve sufficient resilience for reliable tool-less installation.
A need therefore remains for new and improved telecommunications methods and apparatus which provide a ground clip connector which is sufficiently flexible, resilient, and robust for reliably and tool-lessly establishing an electrical ground connection to a grounding bus rail.